Timeline of Western philosophers

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Timeline of eastern | western | global philosophers

A wide-ranging list of philosophers from the Western traditions of philosophy. Included are not only philosophers (Socrates, Plato), but also those who have had a marked importance upon the philosophy of the day.

The list stops at the year 1950, where it is presumed that philosophers fall into the broader Global category.

Contents 1 Western & Middle Eastern Philosophers 1.1 Classical Philosophers 1.1.1 600-500 BC 1.1.2 500-400 BC 1.1.3 400-300 BC 1.2 Hellenistic Philosophers 1.2.1 300-200 BC 1.2.2 200-100 BC 1.2.3 100-0 BC 1.3 Roman era philosophers 1.3.1 0-100 AD 1.3.2 100-200 AD 1.3.3 200-400 AD 1.4 Western Medieval era philosophers 1.4.1 500-800 AD 1.4.2 800-900 AD 1.4.3 900-1000 AD 1.4.4 1000-1100 AD 1.4.5 1100-1200 AD 1.4.6 1200-1300 AD 1.4.7 1300-1400 AD 1.4.8 1400-1500 AD 1.5 Early Modern philosophers 1.5.1 1500-1550 AD 1.5.2 1550-1600 AD 1.5.3 1600-1650 1.5.4 1650-1700 AD 1.5.5 1700-1750 1.5.6 1750-1800 1.6 Modern philosophers 1.6.1 1800-1850 1.6.2 1850-1900 1.6.3 1900-1950 2 See also 3 External links

[edit] Western & Middle Eastern Philosophers

[edit] Classical Philosophers

[edit] 600-500 BC

• Thales of Miletus (ca. 624-546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.
• Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610-546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".
• Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585-525 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.
• Pythagoras of Samos (c. approx. 580–500 BC). Of the Ionic school. Understood the deepest reality to be composed of numbers; believed that souls are immortal.
• Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-480 BC). Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school. Politically anti-militant, and epistemically skeptical.

[edit] 500-400 BC

• Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. approx. 535-475 BC). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the world, which he understood to be analogous to fire.
• Parmenides of Elea (c. early 5th century BC). Of the Eleatics.
• Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481–420 BC). Sophist. Early advocate of relativism.
• Zeno (c. approx. 490-430 BC). Of the Eleatics. Famous for Zeno's paradoxes.
• Empedocles of Acragas (c. 490–430 BCE). Believed in metaphysical doctrine of four elements. Advocate of ethical vegetarianism.
• Hippias (middle of the 5th century BC). Sophist.
• Leucippus of Miletus (First half of 5th century BC). Atomist, Determinist.
• Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500–428 BC). Of the Ionians. Atomist.
• Archelaus. A pupil of Anaxagoras.
• Democritus of Abdera (c. 450 BC- 370 BC). Atomist.
• Socrates of Athens (ca. 470 — 399 BC). Emphasized virtue ethics. In epistemology, understood dialectic to be central to the pursuit of truth.

[edit] 400-300 BC

• Aristippus of North Africa (c. 435-366 BC). A Cyreniac. Advocate of ethical hedonism.
• Antisthenes of Athens (c. 444-365 BC). Founder of Cynicism. Maintained that the wise cannot be fooled. Pupil of Socrates.
• Xenophon of Greece (c. 427-355 BC). Philosopher of history.
• Plato of Athens (c. 427–347 BC). Famed for view of the transcendental forms. Advocated polity governed by philosophers.
• Diogenes of Sinope (c. approx. 399 BC-323 BC). Cynic.
• Euclid of Greece (c. 325–265 BC). Founder of Euclidean geometry.
• Aristotle of Stageira (c. 384–322 BC). A polymath whose works ranged across all philosophical fields.
• Xenocrates (c. 396–314 BC). Disciple of Plato.
• Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-270 BC). Skeptic.

[edit] Hellenistic Philosophers

[edit] 300-200 BC

• Epicurus of Samos (c. 341- 270 BC). Atomist, atheist, hedonist.
• Zeno of Citium (c. 333-264 BC). Founder of Stoicism. Anarchist. Held that the acceptance of objectivity allows the overcoming of passions.
• Timon (c. 320-230 BC). Pyrrhonist, skeptic.
• Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287–212 BC). Renouned engineer and mathematician.
• Chrysippus of Soli (c.280-207 BC). Major figure in Stoicism.

[edit] 200-100 BC

• Carneades (c. 214-129 BC). Academic skeptic. Understood probability as the purveyor of truth.

[edit] 100-0 BC

• Lucretius (c. 99-55 BC). Epicurean.

[edit] Roman era philosophers

[edit] 0-100 AD

• Philo (c. 20 BC - 40 AD). Believed in the allegorical method of reading texts.
• Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BC–AD 65). Stoic.

[edit] 100-200 AD

• Epictetus (c.55–c.135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self-determination.
• Marcus Aurelius (121 –180). Stoic.

[edit] 200-400 AD

• Sextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries AD). Skeptic, Pyrrhonist.
• Plotinus (ca. 205–270 CE). Neoplatonist. Had a holistic metaphysics.
• Porphyry (c.232–c. 304 AD). Student of Plotinus.
• Iamblichus of Syria (ca. 245 - ca. 325). Late neoplatonist. Espoused theurgy.

[edit] Western Medieval era philosophers

[edit] 500-800 AD

• Boethius (c. 480–524).

[edit] 800-900 AD

• Al-Kindi (c. 801–873CE). Major figure in Islamic philosophy. Influenced by Neoplatonism.
• John the Scot (ca. 815–877). Pelagian, neoplatonist, pantheist.

[edit] 900-1000 AD

• al-Faràbi (c. 870–950 CE). Major Islamic philosopher. Neoplatonist.
• Saadia Gaon (c. 882-942).
• al-Razi (c. 865 AD-925 AD). Rationalist. Major Islamic philosopher. Held that God creates universe by rearranging pre-existing laws.

[edit] 1000-1100 AD

• Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980- 1037). Major Islamic philosopher.
• Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) (c. 1021- 1058). Jewish philosopher.
• Anselm (c. ~1034–1109). Christian philosopher. Produced ontological argument for the existence of God.
• al-Ghazali (c. 1058-1111). Islamic philosopher. Mystic.

[edit] 1100-1200 AD

• Peter Abelard (c. 1079 – 1142). Scholastic philosopher. Dealt with problem of universals.
• Abraham ibn Daud (ca. 1110-1180). Jewish philosophy.
• Peter Lombard (c. 1100 –1160). Scholastic.
• Averroes (Ibn Rushd, "The Commentator") (c. 1126 – December 10, 1198). Islamic philosopher.
• Maimonides (c. 1135–1204). Jewish philosophy.
• St Francis of Assisi (c. 1182 -1226). Ascetic.

[edit] 1200-1300 AD

• Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175 - 1253).
• Albert the Great (c. 1193- 1280). Early Empiricist.
• Roger Bacon (c. 1214 – 1294). Empiricist, mathematician.
• Thomas Aquinas (c. 1221 – 1274). Christian philosopher.
• Bonaventure (c. 1225 – 1274). Franciscan.
• Siger (c. 1240–1280s). Averroist.
• Boetius of Dacia. Averroist, Aristotelian.

[edit] 1300-1400 AD

• Duns Scotus (c. 1266 – 1308). Franciscan, Scholastic.
• Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – 1328). Pantheist, mystic.
• John Wycliffe (c.1320 -1384).
• Marsilius of Padua (c. 1270 – 1342). Understood chief function of state as mediator.
• William of Ockham (c. 1288–1348). Franciscan. Scholastic. Nominalist, creator of Ockham's razor.
• Gersonides (c. 1288-1344). Jewish philosopher.
• Jean Buridan (c. 1300 - 1358). Nominalist.
• Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340 - ~1411). Jewish philosopher.

[edit] 1400-1500 AD

• Nicholas of Cusa (c. 1401 - 1464). Christian philosopher.
• Lorenzo Valla (c. 1406 - August 1, 1457). Humanist, critic of scholastic logic.
• Pico della Mirandola (c. 1463 – 1494). Renaissance humanist.

[edit] Early Modern philosophers

[edit] 1500-1550 AD

• Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466 – 1536). Humanist, advocate of free will.
• Niccolò Machiavelli (c. 1469 – 1527). Political realism.
• Sir Thomas More (c. 1478 – 1535). Humanist, created term "utopia".
• Petrus Ramus (c. 1515 – 1572).
• Martin Luther (c. 1483 – 1546). Major Western Christian theologian.

[edit] 1550-1600 AD

• Teresa of Avila (c. 1515 - 1582). Spanish mystic.
• Michel de Montaigne (c. 1533 – 1592). Humanist, skeptic.
• Giordano Bruno (c. 1548- 1600). Advocate of heliocentrism.
• Francisco Suarez (c. 1548– 1617). Politically proto-liberal.
• John Calvin (c. 1509 – 1564). Major Western Christian theologian.
• Pierre Charron (c. 1541 - 1603).

[edit] 1600-1650

• Marin Mersenne (c. 1588 – 1648). Cartesian.
• Francis Bacon (c. 1561 – 1626). Empiricist.
• Hugo Grotius (c. 1583 – 1645). Natural law theorist.
• Galileo Galilei (c. 1564 – 1642). Heliocentrist.
• Herbert of Cherbury. Nativist.
• Pierre Gassendi (c. 1592 – 1655). Mechanicism. Empiricist.
• Elizabeth of Bohemia (c. 1618–1680). Non-dualist.
• Queen Kristina (c. 1626 – 1689).
• René Descartes (c. 1596 – 1650). Heliocentrism, dualism, rationalism.
• Pierre de Fermat (c. 1601 – 1665). Probability theorist.
• Robert Filmer (c. 1588 - 1653).

[edit] 1650-1700 AD

• Thomas Hobbes (c. 1588– 1679). Political realist.
• Joseph Glanvill (c. 1636-1680).
• Arnold Geulincx (c. 1624 – 1669). Important occasionalist theorist.
• Blaise Pascal (c. 1623– 1662). Physicist, scientist. Noted for Pascal's wager.
• Henry More (c. 1614 – 1687).
• Geraud Cordemoy. Dualist.
• Pierre Nicole (c. 1625 - 1695).
• Ralph Cudworth (c. 1617–1688). Cambridge Platonist.
• Margaret Cavendish (c. 1623-1673). Materialist, feminist.
• Antoine Arnauld (c. 1612 - 1694).
• Richard Cumberland (c. 1631–1718). Early proponent of utilitarianism.
• Jacques Rohault.(c.1617-1672) [Cartesian]
• Simon Foucher (c. 1644 - 1696). Skeptic.
• Robert Boyle (c. 1627 - 1691).
• Nicolas Malebranche (c. 1638 – 1715). Cartesian.
• Samuel von Pufendorf (c. 1632 - 1694). Social contract theorist.
• Baruch Spinoza (c. 1632 – 1677).
• Isaac Newton (c. 1643 – 1727).
• Anne Conway (c. 1631–1679).
• Pierre Régis.
• John Locke (c. 1632 – 1704). Major Empiricist.
• Damaris Masham.
• John Toland (c. 1670 - 1722).
• Pierre Bayle (c. 1647 – 1706). Pyrrhonist.
• Madeline de Souvré.

[edit] 1700-1750

• Samuel Clarke (c. 1675 - 1729).
• Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (c. 1671 – 1713).
• John Norris (c. 1657 - 1711). Malebranchian.
• Gottfried Leibniz (c. 1646 – 1716). Co-inventor of the calculus.
• George Berkeley (c. 1685 – 1753). Idealist, empiricist.
• Catherine Cockburn (c. 1679-1749).
• Giambattista Vico (c. 1668–1744).
• Bernard Mandeville (c. 1670- 1733).
• Francis Hutcheson (c. 1694– 1746). Proto-utilitarian.
• Joseph Butler (c. 1692– 1752).
• Christian Wolff (c. 1679 - 1754). Determinist, rationalist.
• John Gay (philosopher).
• David Hume (c. 1711 – 1776). Empiricist, skeptic.
• Julien La Mettrie (c. 1709 - 1751). Materialist, genetic determinist.
• David Hartley (c. 1705 - 1757).
• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (c. 1689 – 1755). Skeptic, humanist.

[edit] 1750-1800

• Etienne de Condillac.
• Richard Price (c. 1723 – 1791). Political liberal.
• Jean d'Alembert (c. 1717 – 1783).
• Voltaire (c. 1694 – 1778).
• Denis Diderot (c. 1713 – 1784).
• John Wesley (c. 1703– 1791).
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (c. 1712 – 1778).
• Baron d'Holbach (c. 1723 - 1789). Materialist, atheist.
• Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715– 1771). Utilitarian.
• Adam Smith (c. 1723 – 1790). Economic theorist, member of Scottish Enlightenment.
• Thomas Jefferson (c. 1743 – 1826). Liberal political philosopher.
• Thomas Reid (c. 1710 – 1796). Member of Scottish Enlightenment, founder of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.
• G.E. Lessing (c. 1729 – 1781).
• Edmund Burke (c. 1729 – 1797). Conservative political philosopher.
• Immanuel Kant (c. 1724 – 1804),. Deontologist, proponent of synthetic a priori truths.
• Mary Wollstonecraft (c. 1759 - 1797). Feminist.
• Jeremy Bentham (c. 1748 – 1832). Utilitarian, hedonist.
• Moses Mendelssohn (c. 1729– 1786). Member of the Jewish Enlightenment.
• Dugald Stewart (c. 1753 - 1828).
• William Godwin (c. 1756 – 1836). Anarchist, utilitarian.
• Friedrich Schiller (c. 1759 – 1805).
• William Paley (c. 1743 – 1805).
• Johann Gottlieb Fichte (c. 1762 – 1814).

[edit] Modern philosophers

[edit] 1800-1850

• Joseph de Maistre (c. 1753 - 1821) Conservative
• Madame de Staël (c. 1766 – 1817).
• F.W.J. von Schelling (c. 1775 – 1854). German idealist.
• Friedrich Schleiermacher (c. 1768 – 1834). Hermeneutician.
• P.S. de Laplace (c. 1749– 1827). Determinist.
• G.W.F. Hegel (c. 1770 – 1831). German idealist.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (c. 1744 – 1829). Early evolutionary theorist.
• Comte de Saint-Simon (c. 1760 – 1825). Socialist.
• Arthur Schopenhauer (c. 1788 – 1860). Pessimist.
• Richard Whately (c. 1787 - 1863).
• Charles Babbage (c. 1791 – 1871).
• John Austin (c. 1790 - 1859). Legal positivist, utilitarian.
• Auguste Comte (c. 1798 - 1857). Social philosopher, positivist.
• William Whewell (c. 1794 – 1866).
• James Mill (c. 1773 - 1836). Utilitarian.
• P.J. Proudhon (c. 1809 – 1865). Anarchist.
• Bernard Bolzano (c. 1781 – 1848).
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (c. 1803 – 1882). Abolitionist, egalitarian, humanist.
• Ludwig Feuerbach (c. 1804 – 1872).
• Augustus De Morgan (c. 1806 – 1871). Logician.
• Margaret Fuller (c. 1810 - 1850). Egalitarian.
• Søren Kierkegaard (c. 1813 – 1855). Existentialist.
• Henry David Thoreau (c. 1817 – 1862). Pacifist.

[edit] 1850-1900

• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883). Egalitarian.
• Karl Marx (c. 1818 – 1883). Socialist, formulated dialectical materialism.
• Harriet Taylor Mill (c. 1807 – 1858). Egalitarian, utilitarian.
• Friedrich Engels (c. 1820– 1895). Egalitarian, dialectical materialist.
• Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (c. 1788 – 1856).
• J. S. Mill (c. 1806 – 1873). Utilitarian.
• Rudolf Lotze.
• Herbert Spencer (c. 1820 – 1903). Nativism, libertarianism, social Darwinism.
• John Venn (c. 1834 – 1923).
• Susan B. Anthony (c. 1820 – 1906). Feminist.
• Mikhail Bakunin (c. 1814– 1876). Revolutionary anarchist.
• Franz Brentano (c. 1838 - 1917). Phenomenologist.

• Henry Sidgwick (c. 1838– 1900). Rationalism, utilitarianism.
• Richard Dedekind (c. 1831 – 1916).
• W. K. Clifford (c. 1845 - 1879). Evidentialist.
• Charles Peirce (c. 1839 – 1914). Pragmatist.
• Edward Caird (c. 1835 – 1908). Idealist.
• Ernst Mach (c. 1838 – 1916). Philosopher of science, influence on logical positivism.
• T.H. Green (c. 1836 - 1882). British idealist.
• Gottlob Frege (c. 1848 – 1925). Important analytic philosopher.
• Wilhelm Dilthey (c. 1833– 1911).
• Friedrich Nietzsche (c. 1844 – 1900). Naturalistic philosopher, influence on Existentialism.
• Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (c. 1832– 1898).
• Bernard Bosanquet (c. 1848– 1923). Idealist.
• Giuseppe Peano (c. 1858 – 1932).
• Elizabeth Stanton (c. 1815 – 1902). Egalitarian.
• David George Ritchie (c. 1853–1903). Idealist.
• Émile Durkheim (c. 1858–1917). Social philosopher.
• William James (c. 1842 – 1910). Pragmatist.
• Josiah Royce (c. 1855 – 1916). Idealist.
• F.H. Bradley (c. 1846 – 1924) . Idealist.
• Vilfredo Pareto (c. 1848 - 1923). Social philosopher.
• Thorstein Veblen (c. 1857 – 1929). Social philosopher.

[edit] 1900-1950

• Sigmund Freud (c. 1856 – 1939). Creator of psychodynamic philosophy of mind.
• Max Weber (c. 1864- 1920). Social philosopher.
• Henri Bergson (c. 1859 – 1941).
• John Dewey (c. 1859 – 1952). Pragmatist.
• Alexius Meinong (c. 1853 - 1920). Logical realist.
• Cook Wilson.
• Henri Poincaré (c. 1854 – 1912).
• Pierre Duhem (c. 1861 – 1916).
• Edmund Husserl (c. 1859– 1938). Founder of phenomenology.
• Jane Addams (c. 1860 – 1935). Pragmatist.
• Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (c. 1856–1931).
• G.E. Moore (c. 1873 – 1958). Common sense theorist, ethical non-naturalist.
• Benedetto Croce (c. 1866 - 1952).
• Carl Jung (c. 1875 – 1961). Founded analytical psychology.
• Emma Goldman (c. 1869 – 1940). Anarchist.
• Hans Vaihinger (c. 1852 – 1933). Specialist in counterfactuals.
• Rosa Luxemburg (c. 1870 - 1919). Marxist political philosopher.
• Miguel de Unamuno (c. 1864– 1936).
• Ferdinand de Saussure (c. 1857 - 1913). Linguistic structuralist.
• Martin Buber (c. 1878 - 1965). Jewish philosopher, existentialist.
• Bertrand Russell (c. 1872 – 1970). Atheist, logical positivist.
• Alfred North Whitehead (c. 1861 – 1947). Logician.
• George Herbert Mead (c. 1863 – 1931). Pragmatist, symbolic interactionist.
• Samuel Alexander (c. 1859 - 1938). Perceptual realist.
• J. M. E. McTaggart (c. 1866-1925). Idealist.
• C. D. Broad (c. 1887 - 1971).
• Georg Lukács (c. 1885 – 1971). Marxist philosopher.
• George Santayana (c. 1863 – 1952). Pragmatist.
• A.O. Lovejoy (c. 1873 – 1962).
• W.D. Ross (c. 1877 – 1971). Deontologist.
• Nikolai Berdyaev (c. 1874 – 1948). Existentialist.
• Martin Heidegger (c. 1889 – 1976). Phenomenologist.
• Hans Kelsen (c. 1881 – 1973). Legal positivist.
• Moritz Schlick (c. 1882– 1936). Founder of Vienna Circle, logical positivism.
• Otto Neurath (c. 1882 - 1945). Member of Vienna Circle.
• Frank P. Ramsey (c. 1903 – 1930). Proposed redundancy theory of truth.
• Ernst Cassirer (c. 1874 – 1945).
• Nicolai Hartmann (c. 1882 – 1950).
• Karl Barth (c. 1886–1968).
• Kurt Gödel (c. 1906 -1978). Vienna Circle.
• Ralph Barton Perry (c. 1876-1957).
• Antonio Gramsci (c. 1891 – 1937). Marxist philosopher.
• R.G. Collingwood (c. 1889 - 1943). Historian of ideas.
• Roman Ingarden (c. 1893 - 1970). Perceptual realist, phenomenalist.
• C.I. Lewis (c. 1883 - 1964). Conceptual pragmatist.
• Gaston Bachelard (c. 1884 – 1962).
• Ayn Rand (c. 1902-1982). Creator of Objectivism.
• A.J. Ayer (c. 1910 – 1989). Logical positivist, emotivist.
• Friedrich Waismann (c. 1896 - 1959). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Jacques Maritain (c. 1882 – 1973). Human rights theorist.
• José Ortega y Gasset (c. 1883 - 1955). Relativist.
• Alfred Tarski (c. 1901 - 1983). Created T-Convention in semantics.
• Rudolf Carnap (c. 1891 – 1970). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Willard van Orman Quine (c. 1908 – 2000).
• Brand Blanshard (c. 1892 – 1987).
• E. Nagel (c. 1901 - 1985). Logical positivist.
• Karl Popper (c. 1902 – 1994). Falsificationist.
• Ernest Addison Moody (c. 1903-1975).
• Jean-Paul Sartre (c. 1905 – 1980). Humanism, existentialism.
• Gilbert Ryle (c. 1900–1976).
• H.H. Price.
• Susanne Langer (c. 1895-1985).
• Albert Camus (c. 1913 – 1960). Existentialist.
• Mortimer Adler (c. 1902 – 2001).
• Karl Jaspers (c. 1883 – 1969). Existentialist.
• C.L. Stevenson (c. 1908-1979).
• Ludwig Wittgenstein (c. 1889 – 1951). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Theodor Adorno (c. 1903 – 1969). Frankfurt School.
• Alan Turing (c. 1912 – 1954). Functionalist in philosophy of mind.
• H.A. Prichard (c. 1871-1947). Moral intuitionist.
• Gabriel Marcel (c. 1889 – 1973). Christian existentialist.
• Simone Weil (c. 1909 –1943).
• Simone de Beauvoir (c. 1908 – 1986). Existentialist, feminist.
• Frantz Fanon (c. 1925 – 1961).
• John Howard Yoder (c. 1927-1997) . Pacifist.

[edit] See also

• From this point in time forward, see the Timeline of global philosophers.

[edit] External links

• http://www.philosophypages.com - an excellent resource by Garth Kemerling which informed much of this encyclopedia entry.